The Element of Surprise

I love the word “surprise”! Been contemplating on this word for a month now. I am thinking how nice it is to be surprised by a loved one. I remember way back during my college days and I attended this mass on a catholic church and the priest was talking about the “element of surprise”. He said, wouldn’t it be nice if you have a gift for your loved one and not tell him/her and just surprise him with a gift. It could be any gift, but the element of a surprise makes the gift more meaningful and makes it more joyful to another human being. It doesn’t matter what kind of gift it is, it maybe simple or it can be grand but its in the element of surprise, the creativity of a person giving it makes you appreciate more of the person rather than just buying the gift in front of you.

Sometimes I do contemplate on the thought. Some friends and family are very creative in giving surprises. Surprise birthday parties, surprise baby showers, surprise visits, surprise video presentation for the birthday celebrant etc. Everything is an expression of love to the person being surprised. 

Even at work when I am flying, whenever one of my colleagues has a birthday, I see most of us crew in one plane, planning and shelling out money to buy a “surprise gift” for that person in our onboard duty free even if we are just flying together with that person for the first time because we want her to feel special and cared for.  I think this kind of gesture stems from unconditional love because it practices giving without any expectation of receiving especially when we give and plan surprise gifts who are not even part in the circle of our friends and family.

How many of us have been surprised by a loved one? The joy is very different I believe. It’s more meaningful. Some even get tears of joy by it. You don’t even have to ask your loved one what kind of gift they want. FIND OUT for yourself. Ask the people around them, get into conversation with them and read between the lines. Be romantic in giving gifts!

(A surprise thoughtful letter I got from my friend Loren from Chicago)

I’ve always fancied it. People give me gifts, which I already expected. Because they ask me! And I always say what gift to buy and where and when to give. They sometimes even ask me should I gift wrap it? (how funny is that?haha.. so scripted) But this time it would be different. When someone will ask me what I want, I will say it’s for you to find out and I leave it up to you. Because it teaches a person to be more creative and to THINK! Think of me when you buy me something. Buying gifts for our loved ones is like getting to know more of that person. Because when we know what they want, it just means that we know them really well. It only shows that if the person likes the gift, we have been part of their lives and we care for what they want because we know what they want. You got me?hehe

But I say this, going back to the law of the universe, the law of giving and receiving. GIVE what you don’t experience first before you RECEIVE. Lets say I don’t experience surprise gifts, then I shouldn’t just expect this and eaves drop to all my friends and family that I want to be surprised in a good way of course. I cannot expect to be surprised when I don’t give surprise gifts and parties for other people as well. So I made a decision that I will give random surprise gifts no matter how little or big the gift is to my loved ones.  Even without any special occasion! I am doing it now and I vow to do it forever because it feels good to see your loved ones happy when you make them happy with your thoughtfulness. One time one of my friends just mentioned to me by passing that she likes this perfume but she is going to buy it whenever she gets the chance because she was very busy at work that time.

What I did as an expression of love for my bestfriend, I bought the perfume, invited her for a surprise random dinner treat and gave her my surprise gift. Of course I made her so happy. But I am giving this example not to show off but I am saying this because even if I don’t experience surprise gifts, I go do it myself in the form of giving. And by law of the universe, everything you give will come back to you a million folds and I totally agree. And that story of giving and receiving applies also with tithing or doing some charity work because it also practices the law of giving and receiving. And with this law will begin the process of circulating joy and affluence in your life and in the lives of others. So start giving before thinking of receiving